Getting started with UAS Dashboard

This article takes you from nothing to a working account with a flight in it. It covers what an account actually is, how self-signup works, what the free plan includes, the first-run setup worth doing on day one, and how to read the home dashboard once data starts arriving.

You need an email address and a password. Nothing else — no credit card, no procurement, no configuration call.

Before you start. There are two ways to get into UAS Dashboard. On the shared platform at app.uasdashboard.com you create your own account. If your agency runs a dedicated instance on its own subdomain, you do not sign up — an administrator creates your login and sends you the address. If you were given a URL and credentials, skip ahead to the first-sign-in section.

Accounts, users, and pilots — how the pieces fit

Three things get confused constantly, so it is worth 30 seconds:

• An account is your organization on the shared platform. It owns everything — flights, aircraft, pilots, units — and it holds the plan and billing. Whoever signs up becomes the account owner with the Global Administrator role.
• A user is a login, with a role that decides what it can see and change: Pilot, Supervisor, Unit Administrator, Global Administrator, or System Administrator, in ascending order of privilege.
• A pilot is a person on your roster — the record flights attribute to, and what training and currency track. Pilots and users are separate records that get linked, which is why a contractor can have a pilot record without a login.

Units are the org-chart layer between them. A unit named Operations is created for you at signup; add more from Organization → Units.

Creating an account

Self-signup lives at /signup on the shared platform and takes two steps.

1. Account details. Your name, email, an optional organization name, and a password. The email must be unique across the platform — it is your login. If it is already registered you are told on this step, not after.
2. Plan. Pick Free, Essentials, or Complete, and monthly or annual billing. Free finishes immediately: the account is created and you are signed straight in.

Choosing a paid tier creates the account first, then hands off to Stripe checkout inside the page; card details never touch UAS Dashboard. If you abandon checkout, nothing is lost — the account already exists on Free, and you can upgrade later from My Account → Subscription. Signup also seeds two defaults so the app is usable immediately: the Operations unit, and a default post-flight checklist template.

Free, paid tiers, and dedicated Enterprise instances

The free tier is not a trial. It does not expire and it does not ask for a card. What separates the tiers is which sections of the app unlock.

Essentials is $19/month and Complete is $24/month, or $17 and $21 per month billed annually. Beyond your plan's included counts, each extra user and each extra aircraft is $3/month — the two are counted separately, and the app asks you to confirm before anything is charged. Deactivating a user or retiring an aircraft brings the count back down without deleting history.

Enterprise features are not a paid unlock on the shared platform. DFR, live streaming, hazard reporting, automatic log-sync integrations, and the public transparency portal are unavailable on every shared-platform plan, including Complete. They come with a dedicated instance, because they depend on isolated infrastructure. See the admin and agency setup article for what a dedicated instance changes.

First sign-in and first-run setup

The first time you sign in, the app stops you at a Terms of Service and Privacy Policy screen. Read both in the tabbed panes, tick both boxes, and choose Accept & continue — your acceptance is recorded with the document version and a timestamp. Declining signs you out. The gate reappears whenever the documents are revised.

After that you land on the home dashboard. Three things are worth doing before you import anything:

1. Fill in your profile. Open My Account and, on the My account tab, add your office and cell phone and set your unit of assignment. Upload a profile photo if you like (PNG, JPEG, WebP, or GIF, up to 5 MB).
2. Set your display units. Under Units of Measurement, choose Imperial (ft, mph, mi), Metric (m, m/s, km), or Agency default. This changes how altitudes, speeds, and distances read for you everywhere.
3. Name and brand your organization. As the account owner, open Account → Team to set the account name, billing contact email, sidebar title, the organization name that prints on PDF reports, your state, and a logo.

Adding yourself as a pilot

Flights attribute to pilot records, so add yourself before importing anything — otherwise your first flights land without a remote pilot in command attached.

1. Go to Organization → Pilots and choose Add Pilot. This requires the Supervisor role or higher.
2. Fill in at least the name. The dialog also takes email, unit, status, employee number, desk and cell phone, roles, and notes.
3. Under Roles, a person can be a pilot, a manager, or both. If you mark someone as a manager, set the manager level — unit or department.
4. Save. New pilots start with the status pending; edit the record and set it to active once they are cleared to fly.

Give the pilot an email address and a matching login is created or linked automatically — managers get the Supervisor role, pilots get the Pilot role. That login counts toward your plan's user allowance, so if it pushes you over the line the app tells you what it costs and waits for you to confirm.

Logging your first flight

There is no form for typing a flight in by hand. Flights come from the aircraft's own data, which is what makes the log defensible: Management → Import.

Drag flight log files onto the upload zone, or click it to browse. Standard formats work on every instance and every plan, with no account or integration required — ArduPilot .bin and .tlog, MAVLink telemetry, and GUTMA/Parrot .json. The Import page also links to a per-aircraft setup guide covering DJI, Skydio, Autel, BRINC, Parrot, and DroneDeploy, since some manufacturers export files and others need a connection. Once flights land, review them under Flights → Flights and see the tracks on Flights → Flight Map.

Aircraft come from the fleet, not the log. Add your drones under Fleet → Equipment with Add UAS so imported flights match to a known airframe. New aircraft also arrive as pending — that is what the "Pending UAS" card on the home dashboard is counting.

Detail on formats and matching rules lives in the flight log import article. If you are standing up recordkeeping for a Part 107 operation, the Part 107 guide explains what the FAA expects you to retain.

The home dashboard and its cards

The home page has two halves.

Across the top are stat cards: New Flights (48h), Total Flights, Pending Pilots, and Pending UAS. The two "pending" cards are review queues, not totals — they count pilot and aircraft records still sitting in the pending status, waiting for someone to confirm them. On plans with checklists, a fifth card appears — Checklists Overdue — showing post-flight checklists past your configured window. It turns red when the count is above zero and clicks through to the overdue list.

Below that is a chart grid. Out of the box you get Flights & Missions, Flight Hours, Flights by Drone, and Flights by Pilot. A Global Administrator can change this in Admin → Home Dashboard Charts: tick the charts everyone sees, drag rows to reorder, set each to half or full row width, and pick colors per data series. The catalog also includes Hours by Pilot (useful for currency), Time of Day, Flights by Unit, and — on instances with DFR — Flights by Type. The layout is saved for the whole organization, not per person.

A brand-new account shows zeros rather than errors. The numbers fill in with your first import.

The mobile app

UAS Dashboard has a companion iOS and Android app, included on every plan. It signs in against the same accounts as the web app: on first run you choose whether you are connecting to the shared platform or to your agency's own instance, then sign in with your normal email and password. The session is stored in the device keychain, and the app can be locked behind device biometrics.

In the field it covers airspace and TFR/NOTAM lookup, weather and the nearest aviation METAR, flights and flight detail, post-flight checklists, activity (shift) logs with pre-shift entries, the schedule, and log import. Free accounts can be created directly in the app; plan upgrades happen on the web.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a credit card to try UAS Dashboard?

No. The free tier is a real account with real features, not a timed trial, and signup never asks for payment details unless you pick a paid plan. If you choose Essentials or Complete and then abandon the Stripe checkout, no charge is made and your account still exists on the free plan, ready to upgrade whenever you want.

What happens if I add a sixth user or aircraft on the free plan?

Nothing breaks. Each user and each aircraft beyond your plan's included count adds $3 per month, and the app tells you the exact amount and waits for you to confirm before anything is billed. Users and aircraft are counted separately against the allowance. Deactivating a user or retiring an aircraft brings you back under the line without losing any history.

Why don't I see DFR, live streaming, or hazard reporting in my sidebar?

Those sections require a dedicated Enterprise instance and are unavailable on every shared-platform plan, including Complete. They depend on isolated infrastructure, so upgrading a self-serve tier will not reveal them. Contact Drone Works about a dedicated instance; existing data can be migrated to it, which is the intended path for a program that outgrows self-serve.

Can I enter a flight manually instead of importing a log?

No — flights are created from flight data, not typed in. Upload the aircraft's log file on the Import page, or connect a supported source, and the flight record is built from what the aircraft recorded. This keeps times, durations, and tracks tied to the actual flight rather than to someone's memory, which is the whole point of a defensible flight log.

Who can change which charts appear on the home dashboard?

On the shared platform, the account owner and any Global Administrator. On a dedicated agency instance, the System Administrator. The setting lives in Admin under Home Dashboard Charts and applies to everyone in the organization — there is no per-user dashboard layout. Genuinely personal preferences, like theme and units of measurement, live on your own My Account page instead.

Where to go next

Import a real flight log first — the product gets far more useful once there is data in it, and the flight log import article covers formats and connection options per manufacturer.

If you are setting up for a team rather than yourself, go next to admin and agency setup for units, roles, user administration, and what a dedicated instance adds.